“But first tell me why,” I said, voice rasping. She tilted her face up toward me, and the single light farther down the alley cast her face in shadows. “Why did you let us use your security code? When you knew?”

“I didn’t know anything for certain,” she whispered, her voice faltering too. “But I had begun to track my father’s activities and started to suspect . . . things. He had given me high clearance at Jin Corp, but I was able to send a message to security as him, requesting the highest clearance for me. Full access. I saw what he had been doing—bribing the politicians against environmental reform, threatening them if they didn’t cooperate . . .”

That’s why we had been able to use Daiyu’s security code at the citadel, why she had access to the restricted lab so we could steal the flu virus. Jin had underestimated his own daughter.

“I didn’t know if I could trust you, but I followed my instincts and took a chance.” She slid her hand into mine, and the corners of her mouth lifted ever so slightly. “There’s something I want to show you.”

I hesitated a moment, then nodded. I had been the one who had judged her, made presumptions because she was you. She had surprised me again and again, but tonight, after all she told me, I wasn’t surprised. It made sense. Daiyu loved Taiwan as much as I did. I remembered the girl silhouetted against the glass wall in my old home on Yangmingshan, the wild jungle foliage as her backdrop. She had looked outside with such wistful yearning. I hadn’t understood then that it wasn’t only the meis who had suffered in our pollution-ravaged city. We walked together in silence, then she turned onto another empty street. The air was humid with rain, smelling almost of spring, and a toad croaked somewhere in the distance—a deep and satisfied noise.

She could be leading me straight to her father. Or toward a group of criminals waiting to take care of me once and for all. But I didn’t truly believe it. My friends and I had completed our mission. It was done. And tonight I chose to follow my heart.

CHΔPTER SIXTEEN

Daiyu led me farther into the twisting alleyways. This was the same area where we had been approached by two desperate muggers last month. And although I kept my ears tuned to the noises around us, I was filled with a sense of brashness after what had happened tonight. Exhaustion mixed with excitement tinged with grief. I didn’t really care where Daiyu was taking me, as long as I was with her. Somehow, after all the lies, and beneath both of our agendas, I suddenly understood that I trusted her.

Despite everything.

“Are you going to tell me how you remembered?” I finally risked asking, breaking our silence.